Ronnie Wells

Ronnie Wells ( born February 28, 1943 as Veronica Burke, † March 7, 2007 in Silver Spring ( Maryland)) was an American jazz singer, the first in the music scene of Washington, DC was active.

Life and work

Wells sang in the church choir as a child and led the age of 13 own band, in which she sang and played piano. After graduating from Cardozo High School in Washington, she studied from 1960 to 1962 at Howard University and worked in the following years in the public administration and the private sector. Mid-1960s, they began performing as a professional singer, inter alia, in Washington's top nightclubs such O'Foolery, Blues Alley and The One Step Down, also in New York and the Kennedy Center in Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel (Maryland ) and on international festivals. She regularly worked with her ​​second husband, the pianist Ron Elliston. Recordings were made, inter alia, for Columbia Records with The Widespread Depression Orchestra, and on their own label Jazz Karma Records.

In addition, she worked as a music teacher, producer with his own studio ( Elliston Music Studio for Jazz Studies ) and festival organizer active. From 1983 to 2002 taught Wells- Elliston as an assistant professor jazz singing at the University of Maryland and worked as a judge at competitions such as the Billie Holiday Competition (Baltimore), The Maryland Educator's Competition (College Park, MD ) and the Jazz Program for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts ( Harrisburg ) with. After the founding of the Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship Fund in 1992 she was a co-founder of the East Coast Jazz Festival, or the musician as Buster Williams, Keter Betts, Charlie Byrd, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Junior Mance, Houston Person, David Fathead Newman, Bobby Watson Lou Donaldson guest appearances. She died of a lung disease. In the field of jazz Wells worked 1979-2010 with at 28 recording sessions.